A MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF THE MARTYRED WRITERS

A MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF THE MARTYRED WRITERS –

Ruben Hovsepyan and I just published an open letter in “Grakan Tert”, Armenia’s literary gazette, and “Yerkir”, addressed to President Serge Sargsyan. Ruben is a lead voice in modern Armenian literature and author of many novels and short stories. He is on the presidium of the Writers’ Union and is the Editor-in Chief of “Nork”, the Union’s prestigious literary quarterly.

Our joint letter is an urgent appeal to the President in his capacity as Chairman of the State Committee on the Armenian Genocide Centennial. We respectfully request that a national monument be erected within the Tzitzernakaberd memorial complex to be dedicated as the symbolic resting place of the Martyred Writers (Nahatak Gragetner, Նահատակ Գրագէտներ) who were the first victims of Turkey’s genocidal crime and who, to this day, have had no burial site. These poets and writers were arrested in 1915 and murdered in haste. The level of brutality to which they were subjected is beyond the imagination of any human being. It permanently stains the history of the human kind.

What a future emancipated Turkey would do to properly honor the troubled memory of these heroes will be a matter for another generation. It is OUR moral responsibility today to provide these giants of Armenia’s creative genius their final resting place right next to the Martyrs’ Monument at Tzitzernakaberd.

Here is their Honor Roll:

Daniel Varoujan, poet
Siamanto, poet
Ruben Sevak, poet and short story writer
Krikor Zohrab, master of prose, novelist, poet, political thinker
Tigran Choegurian, noverlist
Tlgadintzi, short story writer, educator
Ruben Zartarian, master of prose, poet, publisher
Artashes Haroutunian, literary critic, essayist
Gegham Ter Karapetian (Msho Gegham), short story writer, essayist
Melkon Kurchian (Hrant), short story writer, essayist, educator
Yeroukhan, novelist, short story writer, publisher, educator
Gegham Barseghian, essayist, poet, publisher
Tiran Chrakian (Indra), poet, essayist, preacher

Unlike the rest, Tiran Chrakian was miraculously freed by the Young Turk police only to be martyred soon thereafter during the mass crimes of the Kemalist era.

Garo Armenian